Knitted fabric produced on circular knitting machines



Oct. 22, 1935. E wlL ET AL 2,018,166

KNITTED FABRIC PRODUCED ON CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Original Filed Feb. 23, 1929 Patented Oct. 22, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE KNITTED FABRIC PRODUCED ON CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Original application February 23, 1929, Serial No.

341,874. Divided and 1930, Serial No. 433,988.

March 16, 1928 3 Claims.

This invention consists in improvements in or relating to knitted fabrics produced on circular knitting machines, and has particular reference to patterning by means of vertical stripes or to :5 designs produced by vertical striping means. The knitting may be in knitted lengths or may be hose or half-hose.

This application is a division of our co-pending application Serial No. 341,874, filed Feb. 23, 1929. Certain related features are also described and claimed in our co-pendlng application Serial No. 433,987 filed of even date herewith.

According to the present invention, a knitted article which is produced on a circular knitting machine has a continuous ground-thread in addition to vertically laid embroidery threads, and where an embroidery thread is not to appear at the front of the fabric it is interlinked with ground-thread loops of adjacent wales on each side of its own wale and between the said ad- Jacent loops it passes behind the ground-thread loop of its own wale.

Conveniently, where the embroidery thread passes behind the ground-thread loop of its own wale, it is substantially in line with the bottoms of the sinker loops of the ground-thread on the adjacent wales.

In non-ribbed fabric, those portions of the embroidery threads which pass at the back of the ground-thread loops will actually show at the back of the fabric. They will not, however, show in the same manner in ribbed fabric as they will be more or less buried in the thickness of the knitting.

Knitted articles produced in accordance with this invention may have vertically laid embroidery threads each knitted into adjacent loops of the ground-thread in each course and appearing alternatively either at the front or at the back of the fabric without loose threads.

This is made possible because when the embroidery thread'is to be knitted into the fabric so as to show at the front thereof, it is drawn into a loop in the ordinary way with its groundthread loop and is plated on the front thereof. When it is not to appear and is to be thrown to the back of the ground-thread loop of its own wale, it is, nevertheless, interlinked with the loops of adjacent wales so that it cannot extend as a loose thread at the back of the fabric as has been customary hitherto when vertically laid embroidery threads are employed. It is to be understood that when the threads are referred to in the above terms as appearing either at the front or the back of the fabric without loose threads,

this application March '7, In Great Britain the reference to the appearance of these threads at the back of the fabric is to be understood as being actually at the back in a plain fabric but in a ribbed fabric they will be at the back of the ground-thread loops, but, nevertheless, buried to some extent in the knitted fabric as a whole.

In order that the invention may be more clearly understood, two examples are illustrated in the two figures of drawing accompanying this specification.

In Figure 1, one embroidery thread i, shown as a shaded thread, is alone illustrated in its relation to the ground fabric, the loops of which are shown unshaded. The fabric is illustrated as viewed from the back, and it will be seen that 15 in the top three loops, that is to say, loops munbers 6, l and 8, the embroidery thread is knitted or looped along with the adjacent loops of the ground-thread in the usual manner here bringing it to the front of the fabric. In the two 20 loops below, namely, numbers 9 and I0, the embroidery thread is shown interlinked with adjacent ground-thread sinker loops on each side of the particular Wale in which the embroidery thread is knitted. The embroidery thread, however, is passed across the groundthread loop of its own wale at the back of that loop, and where it passes behind the loop it extends substantially in line with the bottoms of the sinker loops of the ground-thread wales on either side. Consequently, no loose threads will occur at the back of the fabric.

It is within the invention to produce knitted fabric in which, as shown in Figure 2, certain portions A and B are knitted with embroidery threads in the manner above described, while other portions, such as C, are knitted without embroidery threads. Between such embroidered and non-embroidered portions the embroidery threads will appear as floating threads extending at the back of the fabric. There may be, therefore, bands of unpatterned fabric, such as C, in which floating threads appear and these can be removed in the ordinary manner, but wherever the Wale-threads are brought alternatively either to the back or to the front of the fabric in the manner described with reference to the bands A and B of Figure 2, or as described in connection with Figure 1, there will be no loose threads.

The invention, therefore, will be seen to reside mainly in the manner in which embroidery threads are looped along with ground-thread loops and are interlinked with adjacent groundthread loops on each side so that although the embroidery thread lies at the back of the ground- 56 thread tabric it does not occur as a floating thread. The invention in its secondary aspect includes a fabric in which alternatively an embroidery thread is brought to the front or the back of the fabric without loose threads.

It is thought unnecessary in this specification to describe means by which the fabric can be knitted, as such means are described clearly in copending application, Serial No. 341,874.

We claim:-

1. An article composed of a ground-thread or ground-threads knitted to form a base-fabric decorated with a design comprising substantially a vertical stripe or vertical stripes produced by an embroidery thread or embroidery threads plated on certain ground-thread loops and which generally cross from course to course 01 the groundthread loops, in which an embroidery thread is formed into knitted loops along with groundthread loops of some of the ground-thread courses, thereat being plated on said ground-thread loops and forming therewith multiple loops in the same wales and courses as said ground-thread loops, and at other of said ground-thread courses being passed across ground-threadloops and there interknitted with ground-thread loops of the two sinker wales respectively adjacent the wales containing said ground-thread loops across which the said embroidery thread passes.

2. An article composed of a ground-thread or ground-threads knitted to form a base-fabric decorated with a design comprising a vertical stripe or vertical stripes produced by an embroidery thread or embroidery threads plated on certain ground-thread loops and which generally cross from course to course of the ground-thread loops. in which an embroidery thread is iormed into knitted loops along with some of the groundthread loops of one wale so as to be plated on said some of the ground-thread loops, and being passed 6 across other ground-thread loops oi! the same wale, behind the latter loops, and there interlinked with ground-thread loops of the two sinker wales adjacent the said wale containing the said ground-thread loops. l0

3. An article composed oi! a ground-thread or ground-threads knitted to form a base-Iabric decorated with a design comprising substantially a vertical stripe or vertical stripes produced by an embroidery thread or embroidery threads 15 plated on certain ground-thread loops and which generally cross from course to course of the ground-thread loops, in which an embroidery thread is formed into knitted loops along with ground-thread loops of some of the, ground- 20 thread courses, thereat being plated on said ground-thread loops and forming therewith multiple loops in the same wales and courses as said ground-thread loops, and being passed across ground-thread loops of other ground-thread 25 courses and at least some of said crossings across ground-thread loops extending substantially parallel to a ground-thread course, back of a ground-thread loop of that course, and being interlinked with ground-thread loops of wales at the opposite sides of the respective said groundthread loop behind which the embroidery thread extends.

EDWIN WILDT. HENRY HAROLD HOLMES. 

